There exists a plurality of situations wherein it is desirable or necessary to drive a nail or the like into a relatively inaccessible location such as in a corner formed by two adjacent surfaces or in a relatively recessed area. In such situations, there exists a risk that the nail be inadvertently bent or misplaced. Also, the fingers of the worker may be injured and/or adjacent structures may be damaged.
Also, finishing carpentry work often requires that the nail be invisible and, hence, set beneath the surface of the wood by countersinking the nail and then covering the latter with plastic wood or putty. Countersinking nails often requires the use of a separate tool, one end of which is placed against the head of the driven nail while the other end is struck by a hammer to drive the nail into the wood without marring the surface.
Some prior art nail driving tools attempting to circumvent the hereinabove mentioned problems have been proposed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,676,424 naming A. Leon Meader and Daniel B. Webber as inventors, issued Jun. 30, 1987 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,529,234 naming Michael A. Juneau as inventor, issued Jun. 25, 1996, both disclose structures including a cylindrical housing adapted to receive a nail and a piston strikable by a hammer for driving the nail out of the housing. Such structures, however, suffer from numerous drawbacks.
For example, the length of the section of the nail inserted within the housing increases the likelihood that the nail be jammed or warped in the housing during ejection therefrom by the piston. Also, the tool prohibits adequate visualization of the nail and of the work area adjacent the location into which the nail is being inserted. This, in turn, may potentially lead to improper positioning or alignment of the nail relative to the workpiece into which it is to be driven. Also, the rigid structure of the prior art structures is such that upon impact of the piston, there exists a risk that the housing may mark or otherwise damage the surface of the work piece into which the nail is being inserted.
Still, furthermore, the proposed prior art structures suffer from being overly complex and, hence, potentially costly and relatively unreliable. Accordingly, there exists a need for an improved nail guiding and driving tool.